Five of the 12 charges against a school teacher charged with sexually exploiting his former students have been dropped, just as the defendant himself took the stand in his defence at the end of a long day of legal battles in Supreme Court.

The 53-year old Smith's parish man now faces seven counts of sexual exploitation of students in the school in which he taught between 1997 and 1999.

The jury were kept out of the courtroom for the majority of the day as Crown counsel Juan Wolffe and defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher argued back and forth before Assistant Justice Charles-Etta Simmons.

Finally, with 45 minutes left in the day, the nine woman, three man jury were called to the courtroom.

"Numerous times you have been asked to leave this courtroom and have heard nothing about what's going on," Ms Simmons told the jury before Ms Christopher began the case for the defence. "This time I am obliged to tell you.

"The defendant is no longer to be considered charged with counts two, three, six, ten, and 11 on the indictment," she told the jury. "At the appropriate time I will give you directions on that."

The defendant himself then took the stand as Ms Christopher opened the case for the defence.

"I'm angry, I'm hurt, I'm innocent," he declared.

The defendant told the jury that two notes he had sent to two of the students were innocent of any sexual intent.

In the first note, he admitted, he had told one of the students he loved her. However he claimed this came after a group activity in which the student's group had lost. "She began crying profusely and mentioned that I loved the other group more than I loved her group," he said.

"I went over to her and wrote the note... I took it back because I knew it had a dual connotation and I wanted her to understand I meant Christian love."

The defendant also told the court that a second note, written to another student, had likewise been innocent of sexual connotation.

In that note, he admitted, he told the student to: "Stay sweet, like you were when I first met you." However, he said, this was written in light of the student's "deteriorating" behaviour and increased incidents of rudeness.

Ms Christopher mentioned four of the alleged victims to the defendant, asking what he had to say about their testimony. Each time the defendant declared his innocence.

He stated he had called one of the students' house twice, speaking with the child each time "as she answered the phone".

The first time, he said, the student had been sick. "I called for two reasons: first to see how she was getting on, and second to give her her homework," he said. "On the other occasion, her behaviour had been deteriorating and I thought it was time I call her mother."

The defendant also told the court of an incident where a girl jumped and hurt her knee. "She fell to the floor," he said. "I was closer to her and went to help her up.

"I did not touch her sexually," he said.

And, regarding another incident where a student claimed the defendant had touched her underneath a desk during a movie, the defendant said: "The desk was very low. Nothing like that ever happened."

The defence is expected to continue their case this morning in Supreme Court.